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Old 01-13-2009, 07:36 AM   #1
Petrous
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Question about e-ink reader fragility and comment about Bebook warranty

Last weekend I put my bebook in a shopping bag with some other books. When I got home I found that the screen was malfunctioning - it hadn't cracked but the bottom left 20% of the screen shows a stuck image.

I had gotten the bebook (as opposed to the Sony) because of its "international warranty" ( I'm Australian). As it turned out the warranty is pretty useless. Firstly it costs $50 just to return the unit to Holland. Secondly I sent bebook a jpeg of my unit and they replied

"It looks like that your BeBook has been broken from external factors.
If we investigate your BeBook and conclude that this is not a warranty procedure cost for replacing your screen would be $ 175,- Us dollar."

Strictly speaking they are right - presumably there was some minor bump which caused the breakage. On the other hand I can't remember any trauma to the bag (which ironically mainly held some paper books - all of which are fine). I would have thought that in its protective case the bebook should have been OK but maybe I'm wrong. I would like to hear from people how fragile or robust they have found their ebook readers and how careful do you have to be with them?. Is the bebook particularly fragile and would a Sony or Cybook be tougher?
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Old 01-13-2009, 07:55 AM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Petrous View Post
Strictly speaking they are right - presumably there was some minor bump which caused the breakage. On the other hand I can't remember any trauma to the bag (which ironically mainly held some paper books - all of which are fine). I would have thought that in its protective case the bebook should have been OK but maybe I'm wrong. I would like to hear from people how fragile or robust they have found their ebook readers and how careful do you have to be with them?. Is the bebook particularly fragile and would a Sony or Cybook be tougher?
I guess you were unlucky. I've had my BeBook sitting in an overloaded rucksack which had been thrown around quite violently, and it still functions fine.

I've heard some stories about the Cybook supposedly being quite fragile, but I'm not sure if the BeBook or Sony Reader are necessarily sturdier.
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Old 01-13-2009, 09:43 AM   #3
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my girlfriend sat on my reader, the PRS-500. cracked the screen, I was able to sell it for 60 bucks. after I paid 150 for it.

i borrowed a kindle that night (bought and returned within 30 days) while i waited for the 700 to be released.
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Old 01-13-2009, 12:59 PM   #4
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Any eInk screen will crack (to be specific, it's the glass "substrate" which is under the plastic screen that cracks) if you apply a bending force to the screen, or if you put excessive pressure on a single point on the screen. No device seems to be more or less prone to this than any other, judging by the reports we've had here.

Avoid those factors and you'll be fine. I've carried eInk devices in my briefcase for over two years now with no mishaps.
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Old 01-13-2009, 01:08 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Petrous View Post
"It looks like that your BeBook has been broken from external factors.
If we investigate your BeBook and conclude that this is not a warranty procedure cost for replacing your screen would be $ 175,- Us dollar."
I would concede that the screen is cracked and it is not a warranty item and save your shipping fees. That is assuming they will just send you another for $175. You can only ask.

BOb
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Old 01-13-2009, 05:47 PM   #6
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I have a Cybook who is near 20 days to make an year old, and zero problems.

eBook readers will die and, and as any other gadget it will die in the moment we want(need) less.

Care taken - I try to keep my Cybook in it’s cover all the time I can - and it will last as long as one needs.

Pitty you got your broken and, yes, it’s not a pleasant feeling for sure.

Hope you get a new one as fast as possible.
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Old 01-14-2009, 12:30 AM   #7
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Thanks pilotbob

I have already written off the bebook and will put the money into my next reader, probably the sony. There were a few things about the bebook that I didn't like in any case.
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Old 01-14-2009, 04:18 AM   #8
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Bebook hasn't stated definitively that you have a broken screen, so I guess you've tried charging it and resetting it... (paperclip in the hole in the back of the device or a full 10 second press on the on/off button)

e-Ink screens can sometimes look "broken" when they've run out of charge and may need to be reset before they'll start.

And.. this is my 100th post! Yay!

Last edited by cbell; 01-16-2009 at 12:05 AM. Reason: Just realised this is my 100th post
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Old 01-14-2009, 01:15 PM   #9
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If the original poster posts a picture of the screen, we should be able to say for sure. A broken substrate has a distinctive appearance.
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Old 01-17-2009, 07:26 AM   #10
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jpg of broken bebook attached.

I did reboot the bebook and just from the look of it I am pretty sure the screen is broken.
I have attached a jpg of the broken ebook.
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Old 01-17-2009, 10:55 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Petrous View Post
I did reboot the bebook and just from the look of it I am pretty sure the screen is broken.
I have attached a jpg of the broken ebook.
yep... certainly looks like there is a crack along the screen. I assume that bottom left corner never changes?

BOb
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Old 01-18-2009, 06:55 AM   #12
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yep thats certainly shattered.
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Old 01-26-2009, 06:40 PM   #13
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Thanks pilotbob

I have already written off the bebook and will put the money into my next reader, probably the sony. There were a few things about the bebook that I didn't like in any case.
Would you mind elaborating on this? I'm seriously looking at the BeBook and would love some feedback from someone who had one? What didn't you like? What did you like? Thanks

Shel
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Old 01-28-2009, 03:41 PM   #14
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I bought the bebook partially because it got some good reviews (on this forum), because it seemed to have wide format support and because it was cheap and had (I thought) an international warranty.

There were some things I liked about it - e-ink is very easy to read although I did find the 'flash' and delay while turning pages annoying ( I am a very fast reader). The battery life is very good, it is very easy to transfer books onto the device and I like folder navigation.

Things I didn't like
1. There is wide format support but it's a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none device - it doesn't actually do many of them well.

In particular I found pdf even on the high magnification setting unreadable (this is mainly on two column medical journal articles, but even on some pdf novels as there is no pdf reflow.) There is a workaround with papercrop but it is very timeconsuming.

I have some large chm and html files that I had hoped to read on the bebook but found that large chm and html are either very slow or eventually crash the bebook (requiring a reset). All my html were named "chapter 1" rather than the name of the file.

I also found lits and prc flaky although apparently this has improved in the latest firmware. Even many txt didn't display correctly.

The two best formats I found were rtf (but no pictures) and fb2. I actually converted most of ebooks to fb2 and they do like nice on the bebook although they do take a long time to load and large fb2 occasionally crash.

2. I never got around to sorting out why but I found that bookmarks often didn't save. It may have been because I was using an SD card rather than the internal memory.

3. It was pretty unstable, with a few crashes especially with large documents (html, chm and fb2) and I also found when I tried the advance 10 pages button.

4. I had hoped to use it to read RSS feeds but was unsuccessful. I did try using mobipocket creator to make some RSS feeds but the created files did not have an index and were therefore not useful

5. this is nothing specific with the bebook but I actually found the size of the bebook inconveniant. It is fine for reading in the home but the problem is if you want to take it anywhere. I suspect this is where women have an advantage as it would fit in a large purse. It is much too big to fit in a pocket and so just about the first time I took it out of the house I put it in a shopping bag and it broke. I guess that is the thing about the old paperback novel - it is pretty durable (and cheap) while the bebook is basically a glass screen (and $A400).
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Old 01-31-2009, 10:48 PM   #15
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At least you got a quote for $175, my sony broke and their quote was 275 for repair.
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